The Rule of Three's

So my last blog I admitted to being a little bit down.  Life continues to bring challenges.  This has been a tough past week for me and my family.  1. On Monday I was laid off from work, 2. On Tuesday my Grandmother Helen passed away, and 3. On Saturday Dave's Grandma Ruby passed away.

I had a heads up about the possibility of lay offs at work but is still did not completely prepare me for when it did happen.  I have one more week on paid time left and then some more time after that with my benefits but then that is it.  There are so many worries that come along with this event.  All benefits are through me.  And for the past year and a half, I have been the steady income for our household.  Dave of course has been working on and off and is thankfully on a job right now, but that will soon be over.  So what will happen?  Something I have been hearing myself say over and over again is "I don't know".  I am usually not too much of a worrier, but I am finding it hard not to in this situation.  It is taking me a while to get to bed at night (something that I am not used to).  I am feeling nautious, getting a lot of headaches, having trouble taking deep breaths.  So obvioulsy it is taking a toll on me physically and emotionally.  As much as I KNOW that God is in control and has a plan for my life, it is hard to really feel that way sometimes.  Through this all though, I know there is hope.  God is not done with me or Dave yet.  Out of this tough situation I am hoping to learn all that God has for me.  I am hoping to learn more about myself and to come out of this tough spot stronger in my faith in God.  But as for now, I am right in the middle of it.  And probably will be for a while.  I pray that I really learn all that God has for me in the midst of this tough time.

 

Onto number two.  My grandmother, Helen Schreiner passed away on Tuesday.  She was such an amazing woman of God!  And it is ultimately a blessing.  She had dimentia and hadn't really been herself for a few years now.  And we know she is where she wanted to be, with the Lord. There are so many things that come to mind when I think of her.  She was such an amazing woman of prayer and so patient with her requests.  She prayed for my grandfather for years to come to Christ.  And after years of prayting my Grandpa accepted Christ while watching a tele-evangelist.  Because of her I have the father I do.  My brother was telling his children that one of the main reasons we know Christ is because of her.  She raised my Dad to follow Christ and he in turn taught us about Christ and so on.  I am so blessed to have the family heritage that I do.  We would often go to her house for a week or so in the summer.    



Puzzle Earings!

She would always have a craft or something for us to work on.  One that sticks out were these puzzle piece earings.  I looked through all my pictures to see if I could find a picture of these earings and I was successful.  Not the best picture of me, but you can kind of see the earings.   

Last time I was in Grandma's Barstow home

I will be forever grateful for her life and the amazing impact it has had on my own.

And number three.  Dave's grandma Ruby passed away this Saturday.  This one has been a little harder because it all happened so quickly.  During Thansgiving Ruby wasn't feeling well.  She ended up having shingles.  She got them around her eye and they were extremely painful.  Because of the pain medication she needed to control the pain she was admitted to the hospital.  Her health and state of mind continued to deteriorate and before we could really catch our breaths she was gone.  Ruby was an amazing woman.  She loved to cook and always had 20 times more food ready for you than was needed.  She was so generous!  She loved yard sale shopping and was always picking up little things for the girls.  She always gave the girls coins when she saw them.  Sequoia loved this of course.  The girls, Dave and I last saw Ruby on Friday.  She was pretty unresponsive at that point.  Sequoia sat on her bed and held her hand.  It was special to see how Sequoia comforted Ruby throughout the past month when we would visit her.  Ruby's absence will be felt often by all of us.